


grind me down to dust

by AngstyChaosMagicUser



Series: that whiter host [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Ghosts, No Uchiha Massacre
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-07-29 22:14:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20089618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngstyChaosMagicUser/pseuds/AngstyChaosMagicUser
Summary: There's a lot broken in Konoha, and the dead aren't the only ones restless.It's going to take all Sasuke and his ghosts have to fix this mess.(Diverges after chapter one of "at touch of death")





	1. bury my heart in the dirt

**Author's Note:**

> So! This is the promised "no massacre" AU of "at touch of death". You'll want to read chapter one of that fic first to get full context, but you can mostly follow along without it.
> 
> This is going to be longer and more involved than "at touch of death", but hopefully not by too much. Five mid-sized chapters instead of three short ones, and then I'll get to posting the sequel to... Probably "at touch of death", I've actually started that one. Unless it becomes unwieldy, both continuities will be in the "that whiter host" series

There's something wrong in the clan.

It thrums under Sasuke's skin, even as oblivious as he usually is to social things. People are tense. Even the ghosts are worried. The people outside the compound don't like the Uchiha at all; the Uchiha return the sentiment. 

Itachi's on mission after mission after mission, slips into ANBU like he's sliding under a river (_too young_, Tobirama mutters with a scowl).

Mom's smiles don't reach her eyes.

Father's hiding something.

But Sasuke wasn't taught by the greatest legends of the last century for nothing. And while the ghosts lose focus when they're away from him, Mito's figured out how to keep memories of drifting as long as she sees him often enough to fix them, and Tobirama's the stubbornest person Sasuke's ever known.

All Sasuke has to do is get into the shrine the Uchiha meet in, and lie somewhere out of sight, while his ghost sensei and Naruto's kinsman sink into the floor.

-

A coup.

It. Doesn't make sense. The village is broken, sure, but - you don't hit broken things, you _ fix them,_ and trying to overthrow everything will just make everything more broken - 

Sasuke has about five panic attacks in a row while he tries to figure out _ what to do_.

It super, super doesn't help that Hashirama is the only one in their group with any people-skills whatsoever, and Kagami's the only one with an inside eye for Uchiha politics. Of course, it's been decades for him, and questioning the Uchiha ghosts outside the compound reveals this is new, recent, and the youngest Uchiha ghosts are from the early Third War - 

But the plans are still little embers. They have time, Hashirama assures him. They can work on changing things - on convincing the clan otherwise, and changing the minds of the people in the village. It'll be hard, but what isn't?

-

Of course, then Mito starts following Itachi.

-

"I need to fix the Edo Tensei so I can strangle Danzo," Tobirama says, perfectly evenly. 

Hashirama sends him an unimpressed look.

Tobirama's unimpressed look in return is better, if you ask Sasuke.

"Using Itachi for this mission is absurd, he's _ twelve _ \- " Tobirama continues, over Hashirama planting his face in his hands. "And there's absolutely no need to cull even the children. Shinobi must not hesitate to do what is needed, but that doesn't mean _ don't think decisions through_."

Sometimes Sasuke wants to punch his sensei. Like right now. Terrible shame it'd go right through. He bets Tobirama wouldn't even try dodging.

"...Also Shisui's plan isn't bad," Kagami says, slowly from where he's seated by Sasuke. "A lot less bloodshed. A lot less damaging to the village. Danzo though… I don't know if you saw it, sensei, but he got a lot more ruthless after you died. He was always kind of a scorched earth sort of guy, but." A shrug.

"Sarutobi always gave him too much rein," Mito says, tightly. "Those boys hedged me out of politics, but they forgot my sensory range covers the continent. Danzo's started more wars than he's stopped."

"Would telling the Third help?" Sasuke asks, lowly. He's never known a Hokage to be anything less than _ good_, and maybe the Third's a bit silly, overly trusting, but that's not the worst flaw… "He could tell Danzo no."

The adults trade solemn looks. Mito folds her hands, sighing. "Child… The Third knows what happens in this village. Danzo is useful to him, as plausible deniability if he ever gets caught with his fingers where they don't belong, but… I'd expect indicating you know to endanger any attempts Itachi makes to protect you."

"...Oh." Sasuke shivers. "And… They won't let us just - leave. Will they?"

Tobirama shakes his head. "Hashirama or I would've allowed it, since trying to bind clans that tightly would've just spooked them, but politics have changed. It'd be considered removing a village asset, not an independent party backing out of a broken treaty."

"Do you think I can - talk them out of it? The clan?" Sasuke asks. "And - and maybe Shisui won't have to control father - and if he does there won't be opposition to him like Danzo thinks - "

Another serious glance between the adults. "I'm not sure Danzo will let that slide," Mito says, "But we might be able to stall for time if the clan backs down."

Sasuke nods.

It's… The best he's got.

-

Later, it's just him and Tobirama. They're training again, Tobirama quizzing him mercilessly on politics and history as Sasuke practices his shurikenjutsu.

"Sensei…" he says, during a break. Tobirama makes an attentive noise. "I - " Sasuke glances down, throat tight. "I don't wanna break my promise, but… If I graduated early, do you think the clan might - listen to me?"

Tobirama sighs. "They might," he says. "This world still values martial skill more than common sense."

"And I could be Hokage faster, and - and then everyone'd be happy 'cause I'd fix everything - " Sasuke continues. His vision is blurry. His eyes hurt.

"I don't want you to be a warrior this young," Tobirama says. He sounds sad. "But the world doesn't care much for what we want, does it?"

Sasuke shrugs.

It _ should_.

He just…

Doesn't know how to make the world _ listen_.

-

"I want to graduate early," he tells his father, his mother, the Academy. When they ask why (which they usually don't), he says, "Because I want to be Hokage."

Talking's as hard as ever, but Sasuke's learned how to recite scripts his ghosts feed him, and that's close enough to being articulate. The different ghosts are good at arguing different things, too, so it's like being _ super _ good at social stuff.

-

His graduation is the day Itachi returns from another long mission.

He's never seen his brother this quietly upset.

_ 'I'm sorry,' _ Sasuke thinks, but can't say.


	2. scatter my bones like seeds

_ The living have as much to offer as the dead,  _ Tobirama had told him once, or close enough to that.

Sasuke doesn't know who of the living can really help - Itachi, maybe, except for how unapproachable Sasuke's brother feels - Shisui, who Sasuke's talked to maybe twice - 

There's a list of adults who aren't in any of the meetings, ever, though.

Auntie Setsune is one.

-

Visiting Auntie Setsune between D-ranks and team training is relaxing. She talks swords still, and is the only living person taking Sasuke's ambition seriously. Which means that, scattered between armor and weapons, Sasuke's been getting a  _ lot _ of talk on modern politics. Especially in the daimyo's court.

He's already heard like five times how Setsune, a functionary in the daimyo's court, met her wife, an Uchiha assigned to the daimyo's guard, and followed her back to Konoha. He guesses maybe it's a bit romantic if you like that type of stuff, but it mostly just makes Sasuke wrinkle his nose.

"Auntie," he says one day over carefully brewed tea. He's getting better at making it. "There's something I need to tell you."

Tobirama's checked that no one's spying, so when his Auntie sets her own tea down and gives him a serious look and says "I'm listening," there's nothing for Sasuke to do except take a deep breath.

"The Uchiha clan's planning a coup against the Hokage," he says in a rush. "I'm not supposed to know, but - "

Auntie closes her eyes. "Well. We have to do something about that, don't we?"

It's like a vice around Sasuke's heart has loosened a bit. Like the strings holding his limbs in tension went slack. His eyes burn.

"Yeah, we do," he says.

-

He wonders, sometimes, if his genin team might not be another resource. At a minimum, they're a step towards tying the Uchiha to the wider village. He pulls his teammates home a few times, like two fellow kids can bridge a divide that massive - 

-

He'd never seen any of his teammates before getting assignments. Totomi Rian is dark-haired, like the Uchiha, but her skin has a more golden cast. Her hands have sword-callouses, though, and her lips look chapped like she's been practicing fire-breath. Sagami Mariko has hair like rust and pale skin and acts like someone gave Tobirama an Uchiha's temper. She has the normal callouses of an Academy student, almost buried under ink-stained patches.

Neither of them's anyone special as shinobi measure it. Rian's mom is noble, but the type where the family's last chakra-user was a samurai at the end of the Warring States period. Mariko might have been found in the gutter and hauled kicking and screaming into the Academy, for all Sasuke knows.

Their teacher's a minor Inuzuka, Sesshi, and Sasuke's father takes the whole team as an insult.

-

Rian is nice and polite and calm around Sasuke's family. 

Mariko somehow gets into a screaming match with his father.

He takes them to visit Auntie Setsune after that, keeping home visits to when his father's not around.

-

"Seems like they found you a proper team," Auntie Setsune says, voice smug like a nin-cat licking cream off her whiskers.

Mariko's currently buried in a book on the mathematical perfection of certain sword techniques, and just grunts.

"Thank you, Miss Setsune," Rian says, sounding kind of like Sasuke does when he's sitting on his hands. Except she looks way calmer.

"Needs to be more mixing, between the samurai and the shinobi, if you ask me. More mixing in general," Auntie Setsune says.

Rian's eyes light up. There's a fervor in them Sasuke hasn't seen since introductions. "The current political situation - " Rian begins.

Sasuke sighs. It's good that at least  _ one _ of his teammates has a personality and dream compatible with his own goals…

Mariko must get to the part of her book about how to create a slash of wind that'll explode as it passes through your target, because she starts cackling.

-

The problem with Sasuke trying to single-handedly undo the rising tensions is he actually kind of really sucks at talking to people. 'Repeating after Hashirama' can only take him so far.

But - 

Auntie Setsune's  _ good _ at politics, and she starts spreading the murmurs among the civilians in the clan, and soon the jounin and chuunin who're aware of the plans have to face the fact that their own clan might not ally behind them. Setsune also starts making a point of reaching out to civilians outside of the clan. She's in a weird political position, she explains one day, exotic and not quite Uchiha but allied with them all the same…

Somehow Sasuke's anti-coup task force becomes four ghosts, a retired samurai turned weapon-smith, a baker's son, a fire-work maker, the most influential of the domestic workers, and the leader of the gaggle of teens who sharpen shinobi's weapons for pocket change. One of the seamstresses proposes a strike, a vicious look in her eyes - refusing to do any work for any Uchiha chuunin and above. It'll hit their bottom lines, but enough people have money squirreled away to establish a mid-sized strike fund. Sasuke donates his mission pay.

From Sasuke's ghostly spying, suddenly having to do their own laundry and sharpen their own weapons makes a coup a lot less appealing to the chuunin, the bulk of the Uchiha's forces.


	3. water them with my blood

It turns out the problem with sending both sensors to spy is Sasuke's situational awareness is _ severely _ inhibited.

Itachi doesn't, actually, manage to catch Sasuke entirely unawares - Kagami and Hashirama are keeping at least a visual eye out - but Sasuke's definitely somewhere he shouldn't be when his brother steps into the apparently deserted shrine and looks _ right at him_.

Sasuke goes still.

Itachi frowns and then beckons for him.

Sasuke bites his lip.

Itachi sighs, silent, and gestures more insistently.

"Sorry, kid, I think you're caught," Kagami mutters.

Sasuke slips out of his hiding place, as quietly as he can, heart racing - he usually waits for the underground meeting place to clear first - and pads over to Itachi. He stays out of super easy grabbing range, though. He figures his brother's at least less likely to use blatant techniques against him; it'd be hostile in a way this hopefully doesn't warrant.

Itachi turns, a silent 'follow me,' and Sasuke hesitates.

The problem, here, is if he leaves, even Tobirama will lose focus, and while Mito can probably manage and keep her memories it's super not ideal, what she knows from being away is always kind of patchy compared to what she hears while close enough…

Itachi's frown deepens.

Sasuke at least successfully avoids squeaking when he's suddenly picked up by his brother. And he avoids making noise while he squirms, but Itachi doesn't let him go.

Hashirama sighs, and he and Kagami follow the brothers out.

-

Itachi carries him into the woods, well away from the shrine - definitely out of Sasuke's ghosts' focus range - and says, voice hard, "You know you're not supposed to go in there alone, Sasuke."

Sasuke grits his teeth and resolves to remain silent. While he was obviously hiding, while it's probably obvious he knows about the underground meetings, that he can spy on them is a stretch since Itachi doesn't know about the ghosts, and Mito says the room's warded from other methods. But keeping quiet is more likely to not give him away.

Itachi raises an eyebrow. "Why were you there?"

Nope, Sasuke is _ not talking_. Not about this. 

His brother tilts his head. "You've been spying for a while, haven't you?"

Sasuke shakes his head a bit frantically.

"Sasuke… You could get in a lot of trouble, if someone caught you," Itachi says, voice gentling, as he kneels in front of Sasuke. "I have the situation handled, okay?"

"But you _ don't_," bursts out of Sasuke's mouth. He claps his hands over his traitorous lips.

Itachi rests a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke tries not to flinch. "What makes you say that, little brother?"

Sasuke's skin flushes, and his eyes sting. He shakes his head again. "You - you didn't even try to get the clan to _ not_," he says after several long, uncomfortable moments. "Arguing with father doesn't count! Which you barely even - "

"You're the one who told the civilians, aren't you?" Itachi asks, softly. 

Sasuke huffs, but, reluctantly, nods a bit. "They're not dumb or useless, and they'd - they'd get killed, too, even though they _ didn't do anything_. And it's _ working. _ Can't run a village without someone _ washing clothes. _"

Itachi regards him, silently, and the moments drag on until Sasuke's fidgeting and trying not to cry. His chest feels too full, like if he blinks he'll burst.

"You have a point, perhaps," Itachi says. "But - it's unlikely to work. Not at this point. Things have gone too far."

"They haven't, and you don't get that, because you're an _ idiot!_" Sasuke doesn't quite shout. His skin feels like a balloon stretched too tight over a hot coal, and his vision's blurring. "The clan's backing off, and maybe it's not solved forever, but there's _ time if people would just calm down!" _

"People usually don't calm down over treason," Itachi says, voice still annoyingly reasonable.

Sasuke stomps his foot and very carefully _ does not say _ 'even the Second Hokage thinks Danzo's plan is terrible.' "I'll fix it," he mumbles, jaw tight. "Just - stall on drastic action."

He's going to need to make the Uchiha a lot harder to quietly wipe out, he thinks, especially if Itachi is this far in Danzo's grasp. (He also needs to detangle his _ idiot of an older brother. _But that can wait for after he makes sure they're all gonna make it out alive.)

"What will you do, if it comes to drastic action?" Itachi asks. (How can he not sound upset, how is he not crying - )

(Hashirama's making a distressed noise behind Sasuke, and Kagami is cursing under his breath. Sasuke's trying to block them out. This is hard enough already.)

Sasuke bites his lip. He knows what Tobirama or Mito would say. Knows what Kagami would say. Thinks he knows what Hashirama would say, however sad he'd call the action.

But that's one of the problems, isn't it? Old ideas in a new age.

"Reduce the damage. Become Hokage. Fix things so it never happens again because everyone in charge is an _ idiot _ who can't do _ anything _ right - " Sasuke spits out, each word falling off his tongue like fire. (He's not sure that's what he'd actually do. He's not sure if a world that harsh deserves to be fixed or burned. But - it'd be an _ option _ at least.)

(He knows, deep in his bones, that Itachi would never kill him.)

Itachi sighs, and…

Hugs him.

Sasuke stiffens. (Why is his brother making it so hard not to _ cry _…)

"I'll try my best," Itachi says, "But I won't do anything that'll compromise your safety."

Sasuke's breath catches in his throat. He wants to call Itachi an idiot again, but the words get tangled up in his brain.

Instead he just starts crying.

-

After a _ very _ long discussion with the ghosts, even Tobirama reluctantly agrees that the only way to make the Uchiha clan harder to just vanish is if more people know. If there'd be people up in arms about the village leadership overstepping their mandate in the execution of traitors. (The Third Hokage is a dictator in a way the First and Second never were, but you can't run a village without laundresses and you can't fight a war without soldiers, and there's got to be a line even Danzo won't cross - out of self-preservation, if nothing else.)

So he waits after training one day, waits for Tobirama to confirm they're not being spied on, and says, "Sensei. We need to talk."

(The Inuzuka aren't powerful nor popular, but they're _ embedded._ And Hashirama says the Inuzuka of his time fought the hardest for children's rights, and respected the office of Hokage least of all the clans.)

-

Inuzuka Tsume won't openly associate herself with Uchiha Fugaku just yet, out of wariness for her own clan's health, but according to Sesshi-sensei she starts going to clan council meetings again. The council is entirely a farce without even the right to make resolutions, but it lets her stick her foot in the door to influence.

-

Sasuke finds himself roped into tutoring Kiba, Tsume's son.

The things he does for his clan…

-

He isn't, of course, the only Uchiha genin in Konoha. And the genin are hardly less observant, less hooked into gossip than the civilians, though the rumors take longer to filter to them.

Which is how Sasuke finds himself in the middle of a semi-secret meeting of every genin in the compound.

-

"They can't do this, right?" one girl asks, biting her lip. She's the second youngest genin, at ten. Sasuke's never spoken to her in his life. "Just - the clan knows better?"

"Adults are stupid," says one of the 'ka twins. Reika or Mouka, he doesn't know which - they don't even look alike, so it's dumb he gets them mixed up, but, well. They're twelve. Of course, the oldest genin here is fifteen. Sasuke's the youngest, at seven. "Why is it surprising they'd do something dumb?"

"Do you know anything, Sasuke?" the oldest, a boy possibly named Kemuri, asks. Everyone turns to look at Sasuke.

He bites his lip. And to think he'd successfully avoided talking so far… But he's the clan head's prodigy. It's reasonable, to think he might know something.

"It's talk," he mutters. "And - plans. Not gonna happen for _ sure_." He pauses. "But… The Hokage knows."

That causes some unease, a few wide eyes, and the 'ka twins muttering to each other. "...Aren't traitors killed?" another boy asks, setting off a cascade of anxious back-and-forth.

Kemuri stands, calls for order, but people aren't really listening to him, and it takes the 'ka twins jumping on the table and shouting to get people to calm down a little. Kemuri regards Sasuke evenly. "I'm not going to ask how you know that," he says, and then glares at the assembly. "No one will." Of course, the obvious answer is probably 'Itachi.' Sasuke doesn't spend a lot of time with clan shinobi other than him. Not that he spends much time with his brother at all anymore...

Sasuke stares down at his feet, shoulders hunched. "The Hokage hasn't done anything yet. He might."

"How do we - how do we make them _ not_?" the first girl asks, face blotchy and expression scrunched up. 

"Make it hard. To kill us without - without admitting it's a traitor thing," Sasuke says, recalling what he and his ghosts talked about. "People outside the clan don't - _ know_."

There's some more worried murmuring, but Kemuri and the other older genin look thoughtful. "You're too young to remember, but we lived elsewhere before the Nine Tails, all over the place," Kemuri says, looking at Sasuke. "There's a law that we gotta live in the compound now. For safety. Makes it easier to be clean about getting rid of us, I guess. But the law doesn't say we gotta sleep where we live, or that we can't spend all our time with our teams." He looks over the assembly. "My jounin-sensei likes me. I think. If the Hokage knows… There's not much harm in making sure our teachers do, too. We can make sure none of us are ever all in the compound together. Moving out might be hard; frequent team sleepovers is - it'll be _ obvious_, if they object to that."

Sasuke nods. That's… Really a lot like what Kagami proposed. Team is basically family, and you count on family.

"And we leave Sasuke out of explaining it," says one of the 'ka twins. "Don't say who told us what."

There's nods; they know well enough that it's easiest to vanish one person. Even a prodigy like Sasuke might go missing.

"What about Academy students?" someone else asks. "My little siblings… They don't have jounin to hide behind."

"Maybe they can stay over with Academy friends or chuunin teachers some?" another older genin says. "I know a lot of us weren't ever really popular in class, but… If everyone tries, it'll be - less people all here."

There's some murmurs of agreement. Sasuke nods along.

It's risky. There's no guarantee a purge won't simply spill over to anyone seen as allied, but - "Try the Inuzuka," he suggests, quietly. He's not _ saying _ Tsume knows, but… There's understanding looks.

They're kids. Fixing this shouldn't be their job.

But maybe they're all the world's got.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! This chapter was fun. Next one is more team-centric; unfortunately I've only got 500 words of it written. And while usually I can put ~2k a day into assorted projects, this chapter's been sticky, so it might be more than a day before I get chapter 4 up.

**Author's Note:**

> Come join me (and find my original writing) on tumblr!: http://chrysanthos-writes.tumblr.com


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